Sunday, April 12, 2015

Reckless Path

When the huge host of wandering
Israelites came close to the Moab border, King Balak got nervous. He had heard
how strong these people were and he wanted to figure out how to defeat them.
His strategy was to hire a diviner named Balaam to put a curse on them. He
reasoned that he would be able to rout them if they were under a curse. So, he
sent a delegation of high-ranking Moabites to Balaam’s home with his message.

No delegation ever so
ill-discharged its mission. They spent the night with the diviner as he
consulted the Lord and in the morning Balaam told the great ones that he had
heard from Providence and that he could not go with them, explaining that God
did not want these people cursed because he had blessed them.

When the delegates got
back to Moab and reported what the diviner said, King Balak was disappointed
and upset, but he did not give up. He sent a second group, a larger one with
more noble people and the promise of financial reward and royal favors. This
group also spent the night as Balaam consulted the Lord, who told him to go
ahead with the group but that he must speak only what the Lord told him to.
But, it is implied by the full counsel of scripture (II Peter, Jude, etc.) that
Balaam must have started thinking about the money and favors during the night,
because when he took off with the group on his donkey, God, who looks on the
heart, was angry and sent an angel with a sword to stand in the road to oppose
him.

Perhaps blinded by his
own ambition, Balaam does not see the heavenly being, but his jenny does and
she shies off into a field. Balaam beats the donkey back onto the road only to
have her pin his foot against a wall. He gives her another whacking and shortly
she just lies down in the road and he starts in on her again. Then the creature
speaks, “Why are you beating me? Am I in the habit of behaving this way?”
Balaam has to acknowledge that she is right and then the Lord opens the seer’s
eyes to see the angel, who tells Balaam he is on a reckless path.

When Balaam arrives in
Moab, he and King Balak make animal sacrifices on a mountain and the diviner
speaks about Israel, but no curses are forthcoming. The king takes him to
another location, hoping to get a different result, but the same thing happens:
the seer blesses Israel and does not put a curse on them. Balak takes him to a
third location with the same result. Then he says, go home, you will get no
reward from me. I brought you here to curse Israel but you have done nothing
but bless them. Balaam said something that may be about like this in today’s
vernacular, “I can’t help it.”

That story is in
Numbers, but elsewhere in scripture we read about “Balaam’s error” which we
take to be seeking favor from men over obedience to God. And, we have become
acquainted with the angel’s words that Balaam was on a reckless path, that is,
self-seeking over honesty. If our donkey balks, whatever our donkey may be, we
had better pay attention. It could be that we are on Balaam’s reckless path of
error.